Anyone going to NELMSC SCY at Harvard in Cambridge MA?

Rick... are you the announcer at the meet by any chance? Also, if anyone was there for distance day, it was my friend (I was counting) that ended up doing the 1700 Freestyle instead of the 1650!! What a fun day that was.

Things will be more crowded than in the past, but our facility is rather large. We will max out around 800 swimmers in any single day. Our spectator area seats 1200 people and is connected to the deck. We'll have 11 lanes open for warmup and warm-down during the entire meet. (6 lanes are 25 yards long, 5 lanes are about 28.6 yards long.) Unfortunately, the weather next week-end will not be as beautiful as it was this week-end for distance day, so most everyone will be stuck inside. However, for those with lots of time between events, Harvard Square is a short walk over the bridge so you can disappear for an hour away from the pool, and come back for your later events. We keep our timeline updated online continuously, so if you've got an iPhone or other mobile device, you can get an update on the timeline while you're away from the pool. -Rick

I was there this past weekend for the 1650 (21:09 for my first time swimming it!) and I'll be there Fri, Sat, Sun. 1000 people is alot... The pool deck will be pretty crowded this year.

Oh yeah... we were not questioning what happened. We just thought it was hilarious. We were goofing with the officials for the rest of the day because of that. Keep an eye out for us... We are the Bearcat Masters from NYC and last weekend, we were the group to your right, next to your little booth. Hopefully, we'll be in the same spot this weekend.

And for those following along at home... we do have real-time online scoreboard, instant results online, and an audio/video stream from the pool. So if you really want, walking around with your iPhone, you can watch the meet, and listen to me announcing each heat. www.meetresults.com/.../ -Rick

And for those following along at home... we do have real-time online scoreboard, instant results online, and an audio/video stream from the pool. So if you really want, walking around with your iPhone, you can watch the meet, and listen to me announcing each heat. www.meetresults.com/.../ -Rick Hi Rick, We just got back from the meet and I'd like to complement you. The meet was very well run, smooth as it could be. Good announcing too, by the way. Giving us 3.5 seconds between heats to cheer was a nice touch :D. Many thanks, Fritz

Hi Rick, We just got back from the meet and I'd like to complement you. The meet was very well run, smooth as it could be. Good announcing too, by the way. Giving us 3.5 seconds between heats to cheer was a nice touch :D. Many thanks, Fritz I second that, Fritz! Everything about the meet was great. Did you take a single break over those 3 days? It seemed that you were announcing every minute of every day. Thanks for putting on a gtreat event! Gigi

I second that, Fritz! Everything about the meet was great. Did you take a single break over those 3 days? It seemed that you were announcing every minute of every day. Thanks for putting on a gtreat event! Gigi :applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud:

We thank everyone who came to the meet, and who tolerated our extremely long sessions. On Saturday, our session ran for 11 hours and 8 minutes. Unfortunately, that "showed" on Sunday, as we had a more scratches than we expected, and it was clear that some people had run out of gas. For those confused by the 3.5 second comment.... At our meet, we run the heats with about 6 seconds between heats when we get moving in the later heats. What we struggle with is that people want to cheer for people who just finished their races. At the same time, we're stepping people up for the next heat, and want it quiet for the start. So at one point I (tongue firmly in cheek) instructed the crowd that after each race, they had exactly 3.5 seconds to cheer, and then they needed to simmer down and be quiet. :-) We constantly struggle to keep things moving as quickly as we can, while at the same trying to make sure every swimmer in every race gets a fair start. We will have more results posted tonight, and in a day or two I will have the full seed time analysis posted to see how we did with our seeding this year. And yes, for the most part, I'm in the booth on the mic and running the computers for the entire session. I do have some help so that I was able to take a 10 minute break on Saturday and Sunday during the first couple of heats of a 200 stroke event. At least I get to be sitting down most of the time. The officials were on deck for 11 hours... standing almost the whole time. -Rick

Kudos to Rick and all the officials and the timers. As others have said, this was really a great event.